Business
Patricia Gomez and Mario Ferrer lead the content design team at King Games, the makers of Candy Crush and other popular mobile games. Patricia Gomez Mario Ferrer They operate at a scale that might intimidate some people, designing experiences for nearly a quarter of a billion users. Serving that many customers forces them to be thoughtful about the tools they use and about how they work with their colleagues. They and their team have become the "glue" that connects designers, developers, product managers, support staff, and other teams at King, always keeping in mind their motto: "make friends, break silos, build bridges." We talked about: the rise of the content design trade (and how it's always been there, just maybe not called by that name) Patricia's evolution from localization practitioner to content design leader the unique challenges of running a content operation in a product organization the origins of the content design team and UX writing practice at King the unique meaning of the word "content" in the game world and how it affects how they label their work the differences between narrative design and game design, and its relevance to their work the relationship between content design and product design how the evolution of content design fits with the evolution of product design, interaction design, and UX design how content strategy fits into their work their role as "the glue" that connects trades at King how, despite all of their accomplishments, they are still a relatively young craft at King how they show their collaborators how content design can contribute at each stage of the product process (and how copywriting is only about 20% of the contribution) how the variety of experiences on their team enrich their operation the surprising effects of the COVID pandemic in democratizing their team's access to stakeholders another surprising result of the pandemic: better documentation of what happens in meetings how their localization needs and the need to scale helped guide the creation of their CMS the evolution of the tools and technologies that they use the motto they've adopted - "make friends, break silos, build bridges" - and their commitment to challenging the status quo and trying new things Patricia's bio Patricia Gomez is Associate Director of Content Design at King, based in Barcelona. She is building the first Content Design craft at King, managing a team of content designers and leading content operations. Previously, Patricia was the Head of Content at eDreams Odigeo, leading a team of UX Writers and Localization specialists. Patricia started her career in the Localization industry and worked 6 years as Localization Manager at Google Spain and Portugal. Follow Patricia on social media Patricia on LinkedIn Mario's bio Mario Ferrer is a Lead Content Designer at King Games, the makers of Candy Crush. He strives to help and guide people across digital products and services with the content he designs. He's a firm believer that the collaboration between research, design, content, and development is what allows teams to solve complex design problems. He started Content Design España, a local community of practice that helps newcomers learn more about Content Design and UX Writing through mentorships, workshops, and events that explain how the role provides value to product teams and their design processes. Mario is always trying to find the best tacos in town, listening to stand-up comedy, and teaching his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre. Follow Mario on social media Mario on LinkedIn Mario on Twitter Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu3qZfIvlcI Podcast intro transcript This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 97. When you play Candy Crush, you see very few words in that game's user interface.